Question:Compare and contrast a Sony Walkman with an Apple iPod, and describe the differences in their physical construction, interface design, technology and delivery of sound. Quick sketches are helpful for this analytical process.
iPod
allows users to "put your entire music collection in your pocket and listen to it wherever you go"
simple, sleek design
the product is the brand
use of simple controls using symbols only
"click wheel" uses simple controls using only symbols (rather than words) for users to control the music, also touch sensitive allowing users to scroll through all the songs on the device and also functions as the volume control
everything is displayed on the screen (song name, artist, playlist etc.), makes it easy to find the song(s) you want and navigate through all the music on the device
recommendations and personalized play lists based on the songs you listen
very personal, earbuds (inside ear) as compared to headphones (outside ear) with the Walkman
digital
Sony Walkman
much thicker than the iPod physically because the media is in the form of a cassette tape as opposed to an internal hard drive on the iPod
no screen display, have to manually fastford or rewind to find the a certain song
more room for error because the tape is very fragile because of the analog format
analog
The Apple iPod seems to have a sturdy build and is very well designed both physically and functionally. It takes some aspects of what is on the Sony Walkman and puts a new spin on it. For example, the iPod uses a hard drive as storage which replaces the cassette tape (and compact discs), it has generally the same buttons (play, ffwd, rwd, stop/pause, volume) but on a completely different user interface and button layout, it adds a screen to display the time and what is playing and it still shares the same sized auxilary jack for headphones/ear buds as the Sony Walkman used. They have essentially taken the Walkman and turned it into a modern day portable music device.
iPod
Sony Walkman
The Apple iPod seems to have a sturdy build and is very well designed both physically and functionally. It takes some aspects of what is on the Sony Walkman and puts a new spin on it. For example, the iPod uses a hard drive as storage which replaces the cassette tape (and compact discs), it has generally the same buttons (play, ffwd, rwd, stop/pause, volume) but on a completely different user interface and button layout, it adds a screen to display the time and what is playing and it still shares the same sized auxilary jack for headphones/ear buds as the Sony Walkman used. They have essentially taken the Walkman and turned it into a modern day portable music device.